WHY DEFENSE CONDITIONING?  

Concealed Carry and Beyond.

Home Situational Awareness

 

   The debate of which course is better comes down to this; unless you've had a gun pointed at you and felt the concussion of the shot on your shirt as the unburned powder peppers your face and bullets crack past your ears, you're just relaying information. There are no bad courses.  There are instructors with varying degrees of experience.

   

Where do you go to buy milk? A pair of jeans? An MP3 player.  That’s right, a store that sells them.  So where do you go for something that requires more expertise than a retail sales associate can give? Maybe for a handgun or shotgun?  Well, you can go to a big box place like if you’re fairly familiar with firearms, but if you need to get specific technical info on a new model that you may not be sure about or you need guidance with your first firearm purchase, you would go to a gun shop and talk to a pro. 

Around here there are a few good gun shops to go to.  On any given day you can walk into one of these shops and hear chatter between potential buyers and the guys and gals behind the counter.  There is always a little bit of a sales pitch for each gun the customer looks at that has a tinge of factory talking points on features and reliability. This is bridged from model to model by the salespersons knowledge and experience as a firearms enthusiast.  They may be a collector, gunsmith, armorer, re-loader, firearm historian, etc. But, there usually comes a point when the customer refers to something like “knockdown power”, then (in my opinion) the person behind the counter reveals their level of what I call 'Defensive Intelligence' ™. 

So where do you go to get Defensive Intelligence ™?  To know where to go to get it, you have to know what it is that you need.  So, what is defensive intelligence?  It is having true situational awareness of everything pertaining to your defense.

Situational awareness is a term I borrow that is used extensively in aviation.  In order to conduct a safe and legal flight, a pilot must maintain situational awareness at all times.  This would include knowledge of prior maintenance and current mechanical condition of the aircraft; fuel requirements for the planned trip and how much fuel is onboard and is being burned during flight; current and forecast weather conditions along the route and the aircrafts equipment limitations for possible weather; flight restrictions for the route, destination airport and all alternative airports along the route; doing a full preflight inspection; calculating weight and balance to prevent overloading (includes weight and balance after fuel weight is burned off during flight); acknowledging personal skill and physical restrictions such as lingering illness or weather conditions that exceeds the pilots experience and knowledge of all applicable Federal Aviation Rules. And, in flight it includes knowing your position in relation to the ground (altitude and location), and condition of the aircraft in relation to it's operational limits (speed, physical attitude and stress limits of structural components like wings and flight controls).  In short, all things pertinent to the operation of the aircraft before and during the flight.

    To effectively counter violence you have to maintain situational awareness of all things pertinent to your safety.  Situational awareness encompasses -  perceiving critical factors, understanding those factors, and finally, understanding what those factors will cause to happen in the near future.  From this you will be better prepared to make an effective response.  This is the core of S.A.R.™, Situational Awareness and Response.

 In the case of someone referring to “knock-down power”, it would be the understanding that there is no such characteristic of “knockdown power” associated with any hand-held firearm that generates its full explosive power within its own barrel.  Understanding this will ensure you do not make the mistake of thinking your bullets will knock someone down just by shear force of impact of the rounds on their body, regardless of where those rounds hit or what organs are destroyed. 

What else lies within the realm of Defensive Intelligence™ ?  I just mentioned having “situational awareness”.  This is awareness of everything pertaining to your defense in any specific situation. So to truly have Defensive Intelligence ™ you must understand EVERYTHING that is in effect when it comes time to defend yourself.  This will include:

1.    Understanding the history and commonality of violence in humans and similar species and how its utility is beneficial to attacker and defender alike.  This also reveals the basics of technique and risk assessment animals and humans use to make the decision of whether to attack or wait for better odds when selecting victims, allowing you the understanding of what behaviors and image you may want to project to avoid looking like a potential victim.

2.    Understanding the psychology of violence in regards to those who are willing and unwilling to use it for personal gain and in regards to those who are able or unable to use it for self defense.  Additionally, understanding the psychological tactics of those who are willing to use it for personal gain against a victim in order to avoid falling victim to there efforts.

 3.    Understanding the physiological aspects of violence.  What is the attacker feeling or experiencing that you can exploit or that you must be aware of because of its inherent advantage or danger to you?  What are you experiencing and how will it enhance or (more importantly) hinder your ability to respond and defend yourself? Do you understand that intuition is a supremely powerful tool and is the physiological manifestation of your psychological and neural defense systems in action?  The Latin root of intuition is “tuere”: to guard or protect.

4.    Understanding the anatomy of your attacker and what areas are vulnerable to whatever weapons you have at your disposal.  And, understanding your anatomical assets and liabilities in order to be as physically efficient as possible and survive with limited injury. Notice I said “limited” injury.

 5.    Understanding the limitations, capabilities and proper use of any weapons at your disposal and understanding your true capabilities and limitations as to the operation of said weapons and any ammunition it may employ in its normal operation.  This is about selecting and using improvised weapons as well as becoming intimate with your weapon of choice.

 6.    Understanding the inherent dangers of training scars from inadequate, misguided, antiquated or just plainly inappropriate training doctrines.

 7.    Understanding everything in item #5 as it relates to your attacker and his/her weapons and exploiting the absence of your attackers understanding of item #6.

 8.    Understanding the physiological and psychological aftermath and vulnerabilities in the seconds, hours, days and years following the moment of attack.

 9.    Understanding the legal aspects in the aftermath of using lethal force for self defense.

    This describes Defensive Intelligence ™.  It’s the basics of being mentally “ready” for a violent attack and is the first module in my curriculum.  But, you cannot just stand there and survive by understanding what is happening to you and thinking your way through a violent attack.  You have to actually do something.  Any response is better than nothing at all.  However, survival depends on you responding effectively to stop your attacker.  You must have a plan.  What do you base this plan on?  You take all of the knowledge you have developed to gain situational awareness, develop a plan and employ it in the execution of a response.  This is what I call S.A.R. ™, (Situational Awareness and Response™).  This plan is often referred to as a “tactic”.  Or more accurately, a set of tactics, which is more than one tactic performed in a definite order or for a desired result.  This word, tactic?  It’s used A LOT.   

    A tactic, as defined by Dictionary.com, is: a plan, procedure, or expedient for promoting a desired end or result. Tactical is the word used to describe the nature of something used in a tactic or set of tactics.  This can range from tactical thinking to every product under the sun the promoter wants to create an air of adventure around, i.e. tactical boots, tactical slings, vests, eyewear, etc.  By definition, an exotic dancers’ go-go boots could be considered tactical boots since they are used to entice customers to pay money to the wearer because of physical attraction; a definite establishment of a tactic to generate revenue. Yes, I have even seen a tactical cigarette lighter. In this discussion, however, we are not lighting tactical cigarettes.  We are figuring out how to survive a lethal attack. This is the desired result we want to achieve with our response.  To defend ourselves with a response, utilizing tactics developed from our Defensive Intelligence™ is the desired result.  Defensive Tactical Response™, or DTR™, is the second module of my curriculum.  This module, combined with the Defensive Intelligence™ module, is the physical element of the S.A.R. Program™ I described above.

    As in the development of Defensive Intelligence™, there are numerous aspects of Defensive Tactical Response™ that cover the realm of close quarters battle, or CQB, which is what you would be involved in should you come under violent attack.  Let’s first discuss what this program is not. 

    This is not a self defense course that is hand to hand only like you take down at the YMCA or your local gym or Dojo.  In my view, those types of programs are antiquated and useful only in situations such as the old “meet me under the bleachers” approach to settling disputes among those with less than mature but nowhere close to lethal intent.  These unarmed defense techniques by themselves are only adequate if your attacker is also unarmed and does not have the numerical advantage of friends helping them; or if you are a law enforcement officer whose intent is to subdue the attacker to place them under arrest; or you are in competition in a martial arts sporting scenario.  Does this mean that unarmed tactics are useless? Absolutely not!  But the use of unarmed tactics must involve allowing an immediate escape for survival or creating the distraction needed to produce your weapon and use it to defend yourself.  So, it must be a tactic that can move from non-lethal to lethal force and back to non-lethal if needed.  There are no rigid rules of violence, so you must not restrict your training to non-lethal tactics or you may find that you are performing Judo or TaeKwondo in a gun fight.

    Think about this.  You are bent over buckling your child in her car seat, or maybe setting your last grocery bag in the back of the car.  When you turn around there is a guy in your face demanding money and he’s got a knife.  Do you think your self defense classes are going to be effective?  Let’s use some of the known factors I teach in Defensive Intelligence™ to think this through.

 

1.        If you do not have a weapon you do not posses the potential to inflict injury that your assailant does.

2.        If your assailant possesses a knife, you will be cut in any attempt to defend yourself or remove the knife from their possession.  If they have a gun, they can kill you without having to stay close enough for you to be able to physically defend yourself.

3.        They have the element of surprise.  If they are one of the 2% of the population who are sociopaths, they will be calm and comfortable with having to inflict injury or death to reach their goal and will not be prone to backing down because of any empathy for you at the last instant.  If they are not a sociopath, they will already be at an elevated heart rate because of fear or anguish over having to inflict injury or death because of their desperate situation.  This means that physiologically, they will be close to their optimum heart rate performance window because of vaso-dilation which increases strength and stamina along with their high adrenaline levels.  This also means they will be prone to overreacting and going too far even if they may have only meant to scare you into submission.

4.        You will be in a state of surprise and reacting near the realm of panic because, unlike a police officer, you were not constantly on the lookout for a possible attack.  Unless you have conditioned your Amygdala’s response, you will still be flinching when the first blow, slash or shot occurs. (the Amygdala is the part of your brain involved in the “fight or flight” reaction)

5.        You cannot run because your child or spouse or elderly parent are present and need protection as well.    

6.        They are too close to just draw your weapon, if you have one, without them being able to strike before you bring it to bear on them.

        How real are these possibilities? Consider this; 1/3 of all police officers that have been killed in the line of duty did not try to defend themselves.  No firing of their gun, tazer, or capstun (pepper spray)/mace. No defensive wounds on their bodies.  Though well trained, carrying a weapon and doing a job that makes them a target, they were taken by surprise and killed before being able to react.

        The statistic I just shared with you is the basis for my training program.  Military and police tactics are inadequate at addressing the basics of personal defense in civilian scenarios.  I first realized that there was an inadequacy with military and police training for defense in a civilian environment when I was attacked as a civilian in my own driveway.  Two men pulled into my driveway as I was parking and just started shooting at me when I stepped out of my truck. 

I had training as a certified auxiliary police officer through the DOD Police Department on the base where I was stationed.  I worked as a fugitive recovery agent which required constant firearms and defensive training. But when I was attacked, I was caught off guard after a trip to the grocery and survived by the reflexive training that was engrained in my mind and a lot of luck in that my attackers had no idea how to shoot a gun correctly.  They got off three shots from 20 feet away before I fired my first volley.  So close I could feel the unburned powder peppering my face.  They were shooting a .38 revolver with a 2 ½” barrel.  If they had been accurate shooters, I would have been dead like a third of the officers I mentioned above. 

So, what is Defensive Tactical Response™?  It is a method of physically engaging your attacker and taking the fight to them by: 

1.        Conditioning the Amygdala (the part of your brain responsible for the initial flinch reaction) to respond in an immediate but appropriate response when confronted by violent attack.

 

2.        Engaging the attacker with a hand to hand response that maximizes the potential for injury to them and minimizes your exposure to injury from them so as to escape or produce a weapon as a solution to the attack.

 

3.        Being able to immediately escalate from non-lethal to lethal tactics or vice versa as the threat level changes.

 

4.        Understanding the mechanics of firearms use.  Learning the steps to becoming “intimate” with your weapon in order to shoot at your highest, accurate rate of fire in order to stop a lethal attack as soon as possible.

 

5.        Development of a Home Invasion Defense Drill™ for the execution of an armed tactical retreat into a designated safe room, based on your floor plan, for your entire family.  Comparing it to a fire drill, we call it a safety drill to lesson the pressure of the experience on children.

     This is a modified version of a defense program that has been in use in select military programs since the mid 1990’s.  The problem with four year enlistments in the military is that they only last four years.  So a viable system of defensive tactics that doesn’t take several years to master was developed to enable special operations soldiers and sailors to field an ultra effective method of defense in as little time as possible.

    This is the S.A.R. Program™ of Defense Conditioning™.  In-depth academic knowledge and understanding of the aspects of violence as it applies to interpersonal human aggression, coupled with the physical response necessary to turn the tables on an attacker with an armed or unarmed response and give you the advantage, whether it’s while you are out in public or in the confines of your own home.

    You spend a lot of money preparing your kids for their future.  Uniforms, athletic gear, music lessons, college savings, etc.  You spend a lot of money protecting your investments; house insurance, car insurance, flood insurance.  You probably also spend a bit of money to protect your family financially from the unfortunate event of your injury or demise with health and life insurance. How much have you spent to prevent their demise (as well as yours) by the violence of others? To give yourself and your family the knowledge and training to live through a threat on their life so they actually get to live out their future?

    Recently, in New England, a mother and two daughters were sexually abused and murdered, the father beaten and left for dead in the basement and the house set ablaze by two home invaders who were outnumbered 4 to 2 and only armed with pellet rifles. Could this happen to you? There are an average of 5 million crimes of violence in the United States every year.  Read this paragraph again. Let it soak in.

  It's Time.......

DEFENSE CONDITIONING ™, SITUATIONAL AWARENESS and RESPONSE ™, S.A.R. PROGRAM ™, DEFENSIVE INTELLIGENCE ™ and DEFENSIVE TACTICAL RESPONSE ™ and HOME INVASION DEFENSIVE DRILL ™ are trademarks of James Barnhart.